Hospital and medical curtains which are used to screen beds for screening and privacy purposes must be regularly removed and cleaned for hygiene purposes. These curtains generally comprise a curtain track, a plurality of curtain attachment elements such as hooks, eyelets or other devices which are adapted to be threaded onto the track. These curtain attachment elements can be detached from corresponding slots on the curtain. Removal and re-installation of such elements is extremely time consuming and also pose healthy and safety concerns to employees who often need to climb a ladder or the like to reach and change the curtain.
Some systems comprise a curtain changing cassette wherein the cassette is a section of track that can be removed with the curtain attached, using a spring loaded pin/unloading tool which is always at the end of the track. The dirty curtain can be removed and the cassette then introduced to the track with a clean curtain ready for immediate use. However, many of these utilise “fixed glide” systems which can get caught and stuck on track joins and cannot be used with disposable curtains.
In this specification, the terms “comprises”, “comprising” or similar terms are intended to mean a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a curtain changing apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include those elements solely, but may well include other elements not listed.